The present invention relates to missile systems, in general, and more particularly, to a missile system which collects and stores energy resulting from the induced acceleration forces on the missile during early stages of flight and which regulates the stored energy to at least one mechanism of the missile for operation thereof during the flight time of the missile.
Recently, missile systems have been proposed to include seeker type radars disposed on board the missile to govern the missile dynamics during the flight thereof to guide the missile pay load to a prespecified target area. Generally, in these proposed missile systems, a radar antenna is enclosed in the nose cone, which acts as a radome, and is mechanically scanned by a gimbal drive mechanism in at least one axial direction, say the elevation axis, for example. Since the missile flight is conducted proposedly at supersonic speeds resulting in a very short duration flight before impact, the requirements for the antenna gimbal drive mechanism dynamics include fast slewing and high angular acceleration. In fact, one example of a performance scenario for a modern missile system may include:
(a) Elevation Gimbal Inertia=0.5 lb-in-sec..sup.2 PA1 (b) Gimbal Angular Acceleration (max.)=15,000.degree.sec..sup.2 PA1 (c) Gimbal Angular Velocity=500.degree./sec. PA1 (d) Duration High Sustained "G" Levels=2 sec. (i.e. approximately 500 "g" flight) PA1 (e) Duration of Gimbal Operation=6 sec. PA1 (f) Total Flight Time=8 sec.
In some recent proposals, the antenna gimbal drive mechanisms were to include large electric servo motors to satisfy the power requirements of high angular acceleration and fast slewing in actuating the antenna from one position to another. It was contemplated that storage batteries may be provided on board the missile to supply energy to the proposed electric servo motors during the flight time of the missile. Since both the motors and accompanying storage batteries are very heavy, this proposal resulted in a considerable weight disadvantage. In addition, since the deployment time of the missile is generally not predictable, the power supply batteries may require storage, in some cases, on board the missile during the shelf life thereof which may be many months or even years. Evidently, a great deal of testing and maintenance of the batteries can be expected to ensure the availability and adequacy of energy of the power supply at the time of missile deployment. Otherwise, the storage battery energy may be depleted over the time of the shelf life of the missile resulting in an insufficient energy source when needed.
Another proposal offered that the antenna gimbal drive mechanism may be powered hydraulically or pneumatically using conventional piston-cylinder assemblies coupled with a regulatory device and storage accumulator. While this proposal eliminates most of the weight disadvantages associated with the much heavier motors and batteries of the electrically powered system, it remains that any attempt to store energy even in hydraulic or pneumatic form, for example, on board the missile will still require extensive testing and maintenance periodically over the shelf life of the missile. To alleviate this effort, some recent suggestions contemplated pressurizing the storage accumulator with the specified fluid just prior to deployment of the missile to provide an adequate supply of energy throughout the flight time of the missile. However, since time of deployment is not predictable and may even be triggered instantaneously by some predetermined event, then any time taken to energize the on board storage accumulators prior to deployment will delay the deployment of the missile and under some conditions, diminish the effectiveness of the strike or defense capability thereof.
From the above discussion, it appears that elimination of the on board antenna operational energy storage during the shelf life of the missile system would alleviate the apparent extensive testing and maintenance effort associated therewith. However, some form of energy must be substituted therefor to ensure adequate energy for operation of the missile radar antenna for the specified times during the missile flight. It also appears that pneumatic, hydraulic or a combination thereof provides a weight advantage in the embodying apparatus thereof as a form for storing and supplying energy to the operation of the radar antenna as compared with an all electric driven radar antenna. The present invention, which is described in a preferred embodiment form herebelow, intends to provide apparatus which obtains and supplies energy to satisfy the radar antenna operational power requirements during the missile flight while avoiding the necessity of storing energy during the shelf life of the missile system. Accordingly, the new missile system permits instantaneous deployment with no unnecessary delays for energy supply storage purposes.